United for Peace
by Kuromiu
Summary: An Asmodian meets a female Elyos, he did not mind sending her to Pandemonium...but everything changed when she wished for peace.
1. The first meeting

Everything started when an Asmodian was sent on a mission to patrol around Ishalgen after the rifts started to appear more often than usual. He finished patrolling for the day and headed back to his camp, until he heard a loud noise coming from the forest. He quickly took out his guns and rushed over the to place where he heard the noise as the sunset set in, then he found a female Elyos who was busy cleaning her clothes from the dust, he sneaked behind her and pointed his gun at the back of her head while the other gun was beside him.

"Don't move."

The Elyos gasped and tried not to make a single move as she trembled in fear and talked in a low voice.

"I-I mean no harm at all..."

The Asmodian switched his place and moved in front of her and examine if she has anything to hide, but she was only carrying a pouch filled with herbs.

"What do you intend to do with these herbs?"

The Asmodian asked with an emotionless tone, she looked down at the pouch and started explaining.

"There is a young child who begged me to collect them for his mother's medicine, and I promised that I'll collect them for him if he doesn't tell anyone, then he agreed."

She slowly raised her head to look at him and see what he would do to her though she could barely see his face. His glowing red eyes glared out at her from beneath the hood of his tattered black cloak. He was silent, and she could read no emotion on his shaded countenance.

"Just let me deliver these herbs first, then you can do whatever punishment that's suitable for me."

The Asmodian thought about her offer and nodded, she started walking to the child's house and the Asmodian followed her from behind. The place was far away and the darkness of the night shrouded Ishalgen, the weather slowly became colder than before and the Elyos started shivering and lost sight of her way, then she stopped walking

"You can't see in the dark, I see." The Asmodian approached her with his gun "Is it still far?"

The Elyos squinted trying to see in the dark, and her eyes barely saw the road

"I-I believe the h-house is over there." She pointed at the direction.

"Stay right behind me or you'll get lost in the dark"

The Asmodian said in the same emotionless tone, the Elyos was wondering if that's how he talks normally or is it because she's his enemy. They continued walking until they reached the house, the child was there and he ran as fast as he can with joy covering his face, he thanked the Elyos as he took the pouch from her and went back inside the house, and she was glad she managed to deliver it with luck, then they went to the woods to have a conversation, the Asmodian raised his gun at her.

"I need to ask you some questions first, you may not go."

The Elyos sighed and knew that there's no way for him to become a bit friendly after what she had done.

"Okay, go ahead."

"Why are you here? and Why did you help that kid?"

The Asmodian asked in curiosity, she looked up at the starry sky and closed her eyes.

"I can't answer your first question directly, but I was asked to come to Morheim and I ended up getting stuck in this place." She opened her eyes and continued "As for the second question... I felt sad about him. And..."

The Elyos stopped and the expression of sadness appeared on her face, the Asmodian ignored her expression and waited for her to answer. "And what?" She slowly opened her mouth to answer but, but the guards came and the Asmodian pointed his gun at her, pretending that he caught her at first to avoid suspicion. Then the guards grabbed the Elyos by her arms roughly and pulled her away to the main camp, and the Asmodian followed.

When they arrived they knocked her out and tied her in a pole inside one of the tents, and one of the guards called the Asmodian to talk to the camp's leader Ulgorn. As the Asmodian entered, the leader greeted him and they sat.

"You did a good job today. Did you manager to get any information from that Elyos?"

"She refuses to tell me exactly why she came here, but it wasn't meant to be here in Ishalgen."

Ulgorn rested him elbow on the table as he scratched his chin. "She may be one of those spies...we'll send her to Pandemonium after tomorrow at dawn, further actions will be applied there. You're dismissed."

The Asmodian got out of Ulgorn's tent and visited the Elyos, and found her awake and still shivering, his eyes were filled with hatred as she shivered from the cold and narrowed his eyes.

"You Elyos are so weak...yet you blame us after the cataclysm war and we did nothing."

The Elyos couldn't make sure of it, they were taught to hate the Asmodians since they were small for centuries and vice versa, then she took a deep breathe.

"Have you ever wondered why I didn't attack you when I had a chance? I could easily summon my wind spirit and ambush you at any second...but I was hoping that somehow...the Asmodians and Elyos can form an alliance and be united as one, there will be peace and the souls of those who suffered will be at ease and maybe...kill all the Balaur..."

The Asmodian's eyes slowly widened and he was in a shock, no one ever thought of that idea, but he was still in denial, what if she was trying to let him free her and kill him after that? His thoughts were interrupted when she started changing the topic

"By the way, my name is Isromie. What's yours?"

The Asmodian turned around as he exits the tent "I'm Vinaite."

Vinaite talked to the teleporter to send him to Pernon then take a rest in his house. No matter how many hours have passed, Isromie's words still echoed in his head, he finally decided to come up with a plan to take her, then he got up from his bed, took a paper and a pen to write his plan and analyze all the possibilities. After hours of planning he managed to finish it and barely took some sleep.

The following day was his day off from missions, and planned a meeting with his friends at his house. They arrived afternoon and Vinaite showed his friends the plan.

"We'll take a female Elyos from Ulgorn's Camp. Lightning, you'll-.."

"Hold on a minute! Take an Elyos? You mean you're gonna _rescue _her?!" Lightning interrupted Vinaite.

"I helped you two countless times. It's my turn now."

"Hmm, I guess you're right." Karyos stated as he crossed his arms and continued

"But why are we going to rescue an Elyos?"

"I'll explain later. You'll be responsible to take her with your stealth skills, Lightning. And don't use the teleporter, it'll give them a clue if they find out that you're the one who took her. While Karyos will prepare the place where she'll sleep. Where's Lyenna?"

"She said she couldn't come, she had to do something important" Karyos answered.

Vinaite explained with a map he had a long time ago.

"Sounds like fun! When are we gonna start?"

Lightning got excited and hyped up since he's going to do the most important part.

"When the night sets in"

The night came so fast, in Asmodae the night was the longest and the day was the shortest, unlike Elysea. Lightning prepared his battle suit and daggers, then he headed to the highest building and Pernon and flew all the way to Ishalgen, then he landed in between the trees and breathed heavily. "I...never knew...flying all the way... here would be...tiring." After taking a short rest he continued his way to the camp on foot, he started using his stealth skills and searched from tent to tent until he found a beaten up unconscious Elyos woman, but the guards are standing at the entrance, he sneaked behind them, grabbed their heads and hit them together and they were easily knocked out, but it was strange that the camp isn't filled with guards, even most of the tents are empty. Lightning didn't hesitate and went back to free the Elyos. "Ouch! They surely did that for entertainment more than a punishment" He thought to himself as he untied the ropes and carefully place her inside a large bag, he took a second glimpse outside the tent to make sure no one will see him, then he quickly carried her on his back and got out of the tent. Lightning realized that there was a meeting, that's why not a lot of guards were present, and many of the guards walked out of Ulgorn's tent, Lightning quickly flew away and managed to escape without being seen by anyone.

Lightning arrived in a small but cozy cottage, far away from the population, Karyos was present and was somewhat bothered by how Lightning was carrying Isromie

"You should at least take her out of the bag straight after you arrived! As if you're carrying food instead..."

Lightning carefully put her down and opened the bag "What if she suddenly wakes up and panics while I'm flying? Sheesh."

Isromie was half conscious and barely opened her eyes, her vision was blurred and fell unconscious again. Karyos carried her to her room and placed her in bed while Lightning prepared the bandages and medicines and treated her. Lightning got up and stretched out

"Well, I'm off now. Se-.."

Karyos grabbed him by his shoulder "Nope! You forgot one last thing!"

Lightning raised an eyebrow and remembered what Vinaite said: "You two should stay with the Elyos and guard the place, make sure no one sees her."

"Oohh, right...I forgot about that" Lightning scratched his head as he left the room prepared a mattress for himself, then fell asleep without even getting a blanket. Karyos was the only one left who's awake and went out to hunt for tomorrow's food.

Isromie slowly woke up, her vision was still blurry she could barely see her surrounding, but she knew she's no longer in the camp. As her vision cleared she looked at her hands, she was surprised that she was being treated while unconscious, but her clothes were covered with bloodstains and dirt, then she found a message attached to a bag and read what's in it:

_ This bag should contain all your needs including clothes, armor and weapons. I was sent on an urgent mission, I'm not sure when I'll come back but it'll only take a few days. You'll meet with two of my friends who are guarding this place._

_-Vinaite_

Isromie thought deeply about the name _'Vinaite'_ it sounded so familiar that she heard it almost everywhere across Elysea and thought to herself "Vinaite..Vinaite...Oh! Him?!" She finally remembered who exactly is he, she heard that he's lived for so long and became one of the strongest Asmodians, but his back-story is unknown even to Asmodians. He thoughts were interrupted when she heard loud noises coming from outside, she quickly changed her clothes then walked slowly to the door and carefully opened it, making a small space enough for her to see what's happening, it seemed that it was two Asmodians arguing about how the food is supposed to be cooked and hissed at each other, they almost started a fight until Isromie walked out

"Umm..."

She had no idea what to say and waved at them nervously.

"H-hi."

Karyos quickly got up and greeted her with a smile

"Hey! Nice to meet you."

She took a close look at him, he had a fine build, white haired tied in a high ponytail along with few small braids. He approached her and lent his hand for a handshake

"I'm Karyos, Vinaite told me about you. Ah!"

The other Asmodian pushed Karyos away, he was black haired and tied in a normal pony tail style with few hair strands covering his forehead "No time for handshakes! I'm Lightning!"

Lightning seemed to be the impatient type and he lent his hand for a handshake, Isromie was a bit nervous since she never shook hands with an Asmodians, specially that they have long, big claws that cover the half of their fingers, then Lightning chuckled.

"Don't worry, we don't bite."

He motioned with his other hands a biting motion. Isromie giggled and shook hands with him

"Oh, looks who's shaking hands now...I thought it's a waste of time."

Karyos stated as he crossed his arms, Isromie gasped and covered her mouth

"Sorry!"

"Nah, It's fine. We don't have to be so formal with each other."

Karyos said with a slight smile on his face and continued "Lyenna should be here at any moment..."

He walked around the house while Isromie offered to be the one who will watch over the food until it's cooked.

"I'm here!"

Someone shouted cheerfully from afar that sounded like a female, Isromie quickly looked at where the voice came from and saw a friendly Asmodian with a pink hair, she was carrying a harp and a bag on her back as she waved at Lightning and Karyos with a cheerful smile. Isromie stood up to meet her, as Lyenna was about to hug Lightning and Karyos, she changed her mind and approached Isromie "Aww...I wanted to get a hug from her" Karyos whined with a low voice. Lyenna and Isromie greeted each other as if they became friends in an instant, and Isromie started first

"Nice to meet you! I'm Isromie."

Lyenna felt comfortable and really happy since she never expected to meet an Elyos in a very friendly way

"Nice to meet you, too! I'm Lyenna and..oh! I almost forgot to give this to you!"

Lyenna dropped the bag from her back, and took out a warm hooded coat, then handed it to Isromie.

"Vinaite forgot to bring warm clothes so he asked me to give you this after I finish with my mission. So here you go!"

Isromie wore it and she was grateful for the help

"Thanks! I wonder why it takes him so long to finish the mission? ...but for how many days was I asleep?"

She thought quietly about it and Lightning came from behind her

"This is the fifth day. You had severe injuries when we took you...We thought that you'd never wake up."

Isromie was startled with Lightning's sudden appearance as Lyenna chuckled

"Heheh. You'll get used to him soon."

They heard sudden footsteps from afar and saw a shadowy figure, everyone readied themselves for a fight if they have and and Lightning swiftly moved in front of Isromie to hide her. A tall man appeared far away, then they found out that it was Vinaite and still wearing his black tattered cloak, everyone was relieved that it was not an enemy of any kind. The more Vinaite walked closer, the more she figure out how he looks like, he had the palest skin among them all and he was somewhat skinny, and had a long black hair, he still showed an emotionless look on his face with his natural red eyes, Isromie figured out that he got dark circles around his eyes due to lack of sleep, it seemed like a really important mission that didn't make him sleep for five days in a row. Karyos went to the cottage and prepare Vinaite's room as they both went inside, then Karyos finished preparing.

"Alright, everything's ready."

"Thanks."

"Just relax for now, those circles won't go by themselves."

Karyos got out of the room and closed the door behind him, then Vinaite dropped himself on the bed and sighed, he could barely open his eyes and went fast asleep.


	2. The Past

**I think...there's too many conversations...too long ones**

Isromie and Lyenna sat together on a bench beside the cottage while waiting for the food to be cooked and started a conversation to get to know each other. Lyenna was wondering how it is in Elysea since they never experienced to live in a clear sunny day in Asmodae.

"So, how is it like living in Elysea? What does it feel like?"

"Hmm...let's see. Where to start..?"

"Maybe you can start from the beginning before you ascended!"

"Ohh, I ascended 10 years ago or so. Well, I was raised in a nice place called Poeta. The villagers who lived there are really nice to each other and enjoyed a peaceful life, the dangerous regions were far away from Akarios Village and no monster wanted to harm the people except the hostile ones, but the guards were always present to fend them off. Then I wanted to help the people there, too. That was the reason why I became a Daeva, and I didn't expect that I'll get missions outside of Poeta, but it was a fun journey! I eventually met other Daevas and became friends with them. Elysea in general is beautiful, blessed with the sun's light..."

Lyenna enjoyed listening to Isromie's story, but her smile slowly faded when she thought about how the Elyos never suffered cold, harsh weathers like in some regions in Asmodae and lowered her head in a bit of sadness. Isromie gasped after remembering that they never experienced a peaceful life that, and waved her hands as if apologizing.

"S-sorry! I guess I went too far."

Lyenna lifted up her head and smiled at Isromie "No, it's fine! Everyone have their own way of living. I was just taking it too seriously for a moment when I remembered something."

"Really? What was it?"

"Vinaite used to love someone, she was his one and only sunshine..."

"What happened to her?"

"That's a loooooong story, but here we go. It was long before the cataclysm war. I and Vinaite were best friends since we were young and always played together, and grew up together. Then we decided to become Daevas as a way to appreciate living in this world, protect people and such, and we managed to reach the higher ranks and fight with the Empyrean Lords, that's how he met Leira, his lover during our journey to become strong and she joined us. We also met Karyos when we became among the higher ranks, he and Vinaite always challenged each other to surpass the other ones rank, but Vinaite always won, that's how we became friends." Lyenna giggled as she remembered those moments and continued "Day by day, Leira and Vinaite and became closer and fell in love with each other, and promised that they will protect each other no matter what. When the cataclysm war started and we were forced to flee into two groups,_ and you know the result of the idea which divided us into Elyos and Asmodians_, we found temporary shelter and realized that Vinaite was missing. Leira was so worried to death that he might lost track of them or he was struck by something and died, but after a few hours later he arrived with a big wound on his back, he was bleeding so badly that his skin color became white. We luckily saved him since we had an expert cleric and closed his wound, the bad new was that it would be unknown when he will wake up because of blood loss, but he unexpectedly woke up the next day...he even admitted that he can lift heavy stuff, and Leira was relieved that he's fine and nothing bad is going to happen to him."

Lyenna paused and took a deep breath, only reaching the middle of the story. Isromie was so interested in what's going to happen next, giving Lyenna a nod and she continued.

"The war was over when the Tower of Eternity collapsed, a sudden earthquake came and it was too strong for everyone, we closed our eyes so tightly hoping that it will end in any second, then the earthquake stopped, we realized that Atreia is now divided into two and Aether scattered everywhere. The leaders and captains assigned us to a mission the next day, and divided us into groups of five Daevas each group to help the remaining villages that survived. I, Leira, Vinaite and Karyos made our group but we missed one, it wasn't much of a burden since we know each other very well, then we arrived at a village that actually had a Daeva helping there, it was Lightning. He was glad that we finally arrived and well, that's how we all met!"

"Say, what happened to Leira? Where is she now?

"It was tragic...everyone suffered from the cold and darkness that shrouded us everywhere, we became adapted to survival, given the ability to see well in the dark and getting those long tailed manes on our back, in addition, we grew claws in our fingers and toes. Then suddenly an abyss gate opened outside the tiny, we never knew why or how it appeared out of nowhere but we knew it's bad news, the Balaur jumped out of the gate as it closed, we managed to kill them one by one, many suffered minor to severe injuries that day, aside from Vinaite...he suffered mentally instead."

"Why-.." Isromie stopped and tried guessing, but she remained quiet

"During the battle, Vinaite was off guard when he killed a Balaur, he noticed a shadow bigger that his size and looked behind him, it was too late for him to dodge the Balaur's axe, then a figure appeared in front of him, Vinaite was unharmed, but the person who was sacrificed and cut in half was Leira... Before the battle, I overheard Leira say to Vinaite: _If one of us dies, then one of us will have to look for another loved one._

Isromie covered her mouth in shock, Lyenna was silent, sadness was showing on her face.

"It...was a horrifying experience for Vinaite, seeing someone he cares about deeply in two caused a big impact on him. His eyes were filled with tears as he cried for the death of Leira. He completely changed after the battle, he showed no emotions at all, and he rarely or never talked to us. We tried our best to restore his old self, but it can't be helped, you can't make someone forget something like that happening in front of their eyes. If only someone could save him..."

"How was he like before she died?"

"Ohoho! He was really different! Everyone liked him. He was so happy and friendly and with everyone, he always had that unique kind of smile which would steal every woman's hearts, that made him the center of attention in crowded places, it somewhat bothered him because he wasn't even trying to seduce the women, but he always tried to ignore their eyes. I'm not really sure why exactly his smile is unique...maybe because he has those feline-like fangs, and unlike his current condition, he's the opposite of who he was a long time ago.. he even doesn't want to sit with us most of the time."

They were quiet for a while thinking about him, Isromie was thinking about what Vinaite experienced, she couldn't understand it at all, but she decided that she would do her best and held Lyenna's hands.

"I'll try restoring his old self, even if it was just a little bit of it!"

Lyenna was very surprised at her and her eyes widened, she didn't know what or how to express her feeling of hope in words, but the expression on her face was enough to understand how she felt about Isromie's idea, then she smiled.

"Do your best!"

They suddenly heard a grumbling sound near the campfire, they checked the noise and found Karyos and Lightning sitting in front of the pot, Isromie and Lyenna found out it was coming from their hungry stomachs as they held it tightly. Isromie walked to the pot and checked the meat soup with the wooden spoon.

"It's ready!"

Karyos and Lightning became happy after an hour of waiting, they rushed to the cottage to prepare the bowls and spoons for everyone, and they came back to the food, then they all ate together with joy. They spent all the time having casual conversations and laughing together until night. The weather became cold, and everyone went inside the cottage to sleep.

Vinaite woke up from his deep sleep, he stretched his arms then rubbed his face as he got up from bed. He seemed to be the first one to wake up in the early morning, then he headed to the kitchen and found the leftover food from yesterday, then he sighed as he prepared his breakfast and went to the living room to eat alone. Lyenna woke up after an hour though she still felt drowsy to get up in the morning, she had no choice but to lazily get up from bed and fix her hair to get ready for the day, then she walked to the living room and found Vinaite with an empty bowl in front of him as he stared at it, it seemed that he was in a deep thought of something important. Lyenna forgot about preparing breakfast for herself and sat in front of Vinaite at the dining table.

"Good morning~!"

"Good morning."

Lyenna leaned herself closer to the table, to rest on it. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes."

"Isromie's really friendly with us, I never expected that. How did you two meet each other?"

"I was patrolling the area, that's how."

It looked like Vinaite wasn't interested at all, Lyenna pouted at his reaction knowing that it's no use to cheer him up in the morning, then he looked at her with an apathetic look in his eyes.

"Aren't you supposed to eat now?

"Hmph...I'm waiting for the others to wake up. You probably should talk to Isromie to know her better."

"What were you talking about yesterday?"

Lyenna raised each fingers to count what they talked about as she answered "We talked about our home, lifestyle, our life before we became Daevas aaaaannnnd...mostly about you."

"Then she has an idea of who I am now."

"Yup. I simply introduced her to you since you were too tired to talk."

Their conversation unexpectedly ended when Vinaite stood up, taking his empty bowl to the kitchen then he headed outside the cottage. Lyenna sat alone waiting for the rest to wake up, she slowly started to become bored as she stared at the door of everyone's rooms, then one of them opened. Isromie yawned when she walked out of the door and she was wearing her coat, it seemed that the weather was a bit cold for her specially after waking up, she tried to open her eyes and see her surroundings until her eyes got used to the light, then she looked at Lyenna with a smile.

"What time is it? I think I overslept."

"We're still in the morning, the rest should wake up at any moment now. Vinaite is outside if you want to talk to him."

"Oh, he's awake. I'll talk to you later!"

"Youre-...not going to eat...?"

It was too late for Lyenna to complete her sentence when Isromie hurried outside, and saw Vinaite leaning his back against a tree, then she approached him. Vinaite looked behind over his shoulder to see Isromie getting closer to him, then he looked back.

"You've finally woken up."

"You, too. Umm..."

Isromie was somehow nervous since it's their first interaction without having to resist anything or be defensive, Vinaite looked at Isromie again with the same emotionless face.

"What is t?"

"What made you absent for days?"

"It's none of your business...you didn't answer my question before."

"Well, I was on a mission the scout the rift. It was in a strange location. And you?"

"I was on a mission to gather data about the _escaped_ Elyos, that's you. But we encountered an Abyss gate when we finished gathering for three days, we found out that there was a generator that keeps spawning rifts in random places, so we shut it down."

"Does that mean rifts will no longer appear in random places?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

Isromie let down a deep sigh, she finally knew that she might be stuck forever in Asmodae if there's no way for her to go home, then she looked back at Vinaite.

"Is there any way to find a rift here? Or at least a way to find one..?"

"I've prepared a costume for you for that case. It's in the bag that I gave you. But I need to make sure of one more thing."

"Hm? What is it?"

"For how long can you fly?"

"As I recall, the longest flight I ever had was one and a half hour."

"We're flying to Morheim when everyone gets ready."

"O-okay.."

Isromie was a bit surprised at Vinaite's plan, it was planned days ago before she even knew, but she agreed to to it. She walked back to the cottage, and saw everyone getting their breakfast, she walked quickly to get in line as if she was one of them. Karyos was in front of Isromie, and he leaned closer to her.

"Did Vinaite tell you the plan?"

"Yeah."

"Plan? What plan?"

Lyenna interrupted them after overhearing Karyos with a confused look on her face.

"It was on the day when Vinaite invited us to come visit him. The meeting day."

"The meeting day?"

Isromie became confused after hearing all of this, then Lightning stepped in.

"Vinaited told us to come over his house for a plan to rescue you."

"Ohh...wait...why did he do this?"

"Who knows? Maybe you did or say something that affected him."

Even though Lightning was right, it was just a guess. Isromie folded her lips to stop asking questions after getting a hint that Vinaite might want to form an alliance some way or another.

Everyone prepared themselves after eating breakfast. Isromie went to her room and checked her bag, it contained clothes that Asmodians normally wear, and gloves that had Asmodian-like claws, she quickly wore them to follow up with the rest, then they all headed outside of the cottage.

"We're ready!" Lyenna announced while clenching her fist with the other.


	3. Pre-First Contact

They unleashed their wings and flew into the sky, Isromie had to stay in between them to conceal her white wings. There was a strong cold breeze everywhere they went, Isromie had a hard time trying to control herself from being pushed back, and she tried balancing herself until another breeze came and pushed her back and lost her balance, she closed her eyes as she fell hoping to not feel any pain when she hits the ground, then she felt that someone caught her hand, it had a hard sensation and claw-like, then she slowly opened her eyes and saw Vinaite.

"Um...thanks."

"Be careful next time."

Vinaite let go of Isromie when she gained balance again without even worrying about her, and continued flying to their way to Morheim. "Hmph, even if he saved me two times already... he's still a meanie!" Isromie thought to herself with a pouting face and hurried to catch up with the rest. The breeze started to become stronger little by little, Karyos observed the area as they got closer to Morheim until they arrived and landed safely into the woods.

"It seems that a blizzard will hit the place soon."

"Ugh...I hate waiting." Lightning complained, scratching his head in frustration.

"It's not going to last for a day, anyway. I think there's an abandoned house somewhere here."

They carefully looked around the woods, as the blizzard slowly started. It became hard to see, everything was white and foggy.

"Ah! Found it!"

Lyenna shouted and pointed at the direction of the house, and everyone followed her. Karyos stepped to the side of the door in front of Isromei and Lyenna, and he bowed with a smile. "Ladies first."

Lyenna ignored it and walked past him, and Isromie followed with a slight giggle while covering her mouth. Everyone were so worn out from the travel, each one of them took a seat, it didn't matter if it would be on the couch, a wooden chair, a table, or a bed as long as they can seat, all of them sat except Vinaite, he was standing leaning next to the window with arms crossed, he silently gazed at the harsh weather outside, waiting for it to stop and continue their journey. It didn't seem like flying for a long time made him tired at all, it was more like a warm up to him.

Isromie let out a deep sigh of relief and closed her eyes, it was a long tiresome journey for her, that made her think about how the Asmodians managed to live a life like this almost everyday. She was relaxed for a moment until Karyos startled her, she opened her eyes to see her surroundings, and found Karyos sitting next to her.

"Tired?"

"A-ah, yes.."

Karyos offered her a glass of water, she showed a soft smile and took the glass from him, and took a sip.

"Heheh, sorry about scaring you."

"No, it's fine. I was just taking a break."

"So, how's it? Are your comfortable with us?"

"Well...I never thought if I was comfortable or not. I just feel like an _outcast_ sometimes with you. I'm mostly thinking of what will happen in the future like-"

Isromie paused, as if she thought thoroughly what she wanted to say, or how to put it in a sentence, she continued

"I just hope everything will be okay. I want everyone to be happy together, no matter if we live or look differently."

They stopped their conversation at this point, going back to their personal thoughts, Karyos' thoughts were all mixed together as well as his emotions. Will everything go as planned? Will they find more of Isromie's people who seek friends? What's the best way to make things go smoothly? The living room was so quiet, it was only Isromie and Karyos who conversed for a moment, Lyenna took her harp that was attached to her back and played a tune to lighten the mood, and Lightning stretched out his body on the bed and took a deep, but loud breathe.

"Nothing's better than one of Lyenna's music!"

Lynna puckered her lips as she glared at him, like it was not a compliment

"Pfft, you're saying this like I don't know how to play. Just enjoy it!"

"Okay, okay. Whatever."

Lyenna gave Lightning a final glare and continued playing a gentle music with her harp, everyone listened quietly to the music for the time being, until the blizzard started to slowly fade. Karyos stood up and opened the door, but what appeared in front of him was a surprise, a big wall of snow. He turned at everyone with a confused look on his face.

"Uh, I think we have a new problem now. I'm not sure how deep that wall is, but I have a feeling that the blizzard managed to cover the whole house." Lightning stood up and stretched his arms like preparing for a warm-up and walked to the wall of snow with a big grin on his face. "Then let's dig it!" He started digging with his claws without hesitation, while everyone watched him with their arms crossed as he dug deeper, and deeper until it formed an endless looking tunnel. Lightning stopped to catch a breath and slowly walked out of the tunnel.

"There's... no end... to it."

Karyos took out his cipher-blade from the handle and waved it around.

"Y'know, you could've dug an area to make it fit my bastion and I continue using the bastion's customized drill."

"What?! Why didn't you say that earlier!"

"Oh, well..you were too excited, I felt bad interrupting you."

Karyos snickered slightly as Lightning was about to lunge at him. "We won't get out if we don't come up with a solid idea." Everyone's attention drew to Vinaite as took out a dagger from behind his worn-out cloak and pierced the snow's roof with it to test the depth of it. After figuring out a way, he took three attachable grenades from his pouch and placed it on the snow's roof, then everyone walked away from the door's entrance when the timer started. Few seconds have passed and the timer went off, all the three grenades blew the snow, and light found it's way through the hole. Isromie was impressed, she was not expecting that, or maybe did not know much about Vinaite, precisely. Lightning scouted the area first to see if no one was there in the wilds besides them, and sent a signal to them on top of a tree near the house. Everyone cautiously walked out one by one, their heads moving from left to right to make sure the area is empty. Then they continued travelling on foot since the wind was still strong enough to drive away anyone flying. Isromie was trying her best to ignore the freezing cold weather, then suddenly a rift appeared in front of them and they quickly hid between the bushes. Minutes have passed, and two Elyos walked out from the rift. They were blonde haired and looked alike, maybe siblings. The female was carrying a bow on her back, and the male was holding a sword, prepared to attack anyone who ambushes them. "Hey! Niyala! Kuradon! I'm here!" Isromie jumped out of the bushes without telling the rest and ran to the girl, and hugged each other, sharing their smiles. The hiding Asmodians were hesitant whether to go out or continue hiding, no one knows when will another one appear, but the rift closed suddenly like how it appeared before, then they silently continued observing Isromie and the two other Elyos, they seemed to know each other very well, but it would be inconvenient if they walk to them, thinking they're enemies. Isromie remembered after a small talk with her two friends, and become completely embarrassed about forgetting to introduce the two sides. "I totally forgot." She muttered to herself while covering her mouth, and glanced at the bushes. "Hm? What's wrong?" Niyala wondered, as Kuradon placed his sword in front of him to prepare for any traps or ambushes after trying to understand Isromie's expression, then she quickly lowered the sword from Kuradon.

"They're allies!"

"Huh, what?"

"Umm, I have friends with me. They're Asmodians but they seek no harm to us."

Niyala and Kuradon were dumbfounded, tried to understand what Isromie said, or what she meant. Niyala placed her palm on Isromie's forehead with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head with something?" Isromie took a deep breath and calmly walked to the bushes, then looked back at Isromie and Kuradon. "Promise me that you won't hurt them, okay? Come, you can get out now." Vinaite was first first to appear from between the bushes with the same expressionless, yet calm look on his face, then the rest also appeared. The two siblings were confused, they had a strong urge to attack them but they looked harmless, except one with a glowing red eye, glaring at them. Everyone was silent, two different sides meeting each other without a fight is indeed a strange sight. Lyenna was so conscious when she took a good look at everyone's faces, and noticed that Lightning didn't have a pleasant look on his face, his eyes were glowing red but no one noticed because he was behind the rest, then before they started introducing each other, she quickly approached Isromie and whispered to her ear "Lightning's not in a good state, I'm going to talk to him in private." Isromie nodded as Lyenna dragged Lightning to the forest, she she began the introduction. Lightning looked back at Niyala and Kuradon deep in the forest for the last time, until he felt a stinging pain on his cheek.

"Ouch! Why did you pinch me!"

"We're not going to fight, okay? I know it's all because of what happened many years ago, but this time, we're going to change everything and return everything to how it once was."

"But-"

"No but's! Your eyes were glowing red! Come on, let's go back _and_ be friendly."

Lyenna dragged Lightning again by his arm and approached the rest with a smile. "Hi, I'm Lyenna. Nice to meet you!" Lyenna lent out her hand to Niyala and Kuradon, both were still nervous but shook hands with her. "And this is Lightning, he is a bit unfriendly so I hope you can get along well." Kuradon approached Lightning with a stern look on his face and offered to shake hands

"Nice meeting you."

"Hmph."

Lightning decline his offer and looked away. "Like I said, a bit unfriendly..." Lyenna exclaimed with a disappointed tone. Niyala held Isromie's hands tightly as she spoke.

"We were so worried about you, so we came here looking for you. But what exactly happened?"

"Ah, I forgot to explain-"

"We're going to form an alliance."

Vinaite approached them with the same expressionless, yet calm face.

"You're...not serious right? I mean we can't simply do that." Kuradon wondered about the idea while Niyala was speechless for the time being, and he continued. "How are we going to do that? We're just a bunch of Daevas who serve their own continent." Isromie stood in between them and placed her hands on Kuradon and Niyala's shoulders. "Just a moment, please." Isromie took them a bit farther from the rest of the group and explained. "He's Vinaite from the rumors. He's real!" Niyala and Kuradon's jaws dropped, they lost their words as Isromie continued explaining them. "It's a really long story, but we both agreed to form an alliance and stop all this conflict and brought along friends with him. But...He rarely talks, I don't know our next plan other than going to Morheim"

"We're already at Morheim." The trio were startled by Vinaite as he walked to them with the rest of the group. "Sorry, I over heard your conversation." Isromie let out a sigh as she looked at Vinaite "You're seriously blunt..." Vinaite paid no attention to Isromie's comment and came up with the next plan, everyone sat in a circle hiding between the trees of the forest.

"Lyenna will buy cloaks to for everyone. Then we will wait for the next rift to appear and go to Elysea because your kind can't handle the cold climate here, then we're going to look for a base far away from any villages or camps."

"Huh? That's all?" Niyala questioned, scratching her cheek.

"I can't decide everything until I confirm my plan."

"I see."

Everyone took a break and made small conversations with each other, Lightning on the other hand, continued his job by scouting the area restlessly.


End file.
